Expanding Jeff Sessions’s power to escalate the war on drugs
The new bill extends the temporary scheduling duration to five years for Schedule A substances and eliminates the requirement for analyzing the drug’s abuse record and its potential risk to public health.
The SITSA Act create[s] a new schedule, Schedule A, for substances that are chemically similar to already-regulated drugs. The attorney general [will] be able to place new compounds in Schedule A for a period of up to five years. Critics say this amounts to giving the attorney general the power to unilaterally write federal drug policy. The bill “gives the attorney general a ton of power in terms of scheduling drugs and pursuing penalties,” said Michael Collins, a deputy director at the Drug Policy Alliance. “This is a giant step backwards, and really it’s doing the bidding of Jeff Sessions as he tries to escalate the war on drugs.” … critics are worried that the bill’s language could be used to justify bans on all manner of substances that are not particularly lethal or dangerous. The drug known as kratom is one particular area of concern. Experts say the risks with using the drug are “remarkably low,” and people who take it say it has helped them quit using alcohol, opiates and other, much deadlier substances.
Original Article (Washington Post):
Congress is considering a bill that would expand Jeff Sessions’s power to escalate the war on drugs
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